Dassault releases V5R17 of PLM suite

By Control Engineering Staff September 14, 2006

Dassault Systems and IBM have released Version 5 Release 17 of their product lifecycle management (PLM) portfolio, comprised of Catia for collaborative product development, and Enovia VPLM and Enovia SmarTeam for collaborative lifecycle management. New features are designed to streamline engineering-to-manufacturing cycles, optimize business processes, and maximize standards adoption. According to Dassault, “V5R17 extends V5 openness, offering major XML enhancements through its combined 3-D XML and Web services strategy.”

Holger Schanz, teamleader for digital body-in-white planning at DaimlerChrysler, uses Dassault’s Delmia product for virtual production, which is part of the Catia product line. He says, Dassault “has introduced a paradigm shift with the latest release. As a body-in-white planner, the new possibilities in resource and layout planning are very interesting for me. With these, Delmia closes the loop between early product evaluation and process planning—where we already use Delmia in production—and resource-oriented capacity planning, in context, with the manufacturing layout.”

Some key features include:

Catia V5R17—Major enhancements in 3-D electrical harness flattening; increased efficiency of Catia machining NC programming and simulation; auto-filleting capability that improves design productivity; extension of the 3-D master approach with new capabilities, enabling the fast and convenient display of tolerances and annotations in a familiar drawing layout within the 3-D environment.

Enovia VPLM V5R17—Collaborative Enterprise Sourcing (CES) combines engineering and sourcing functions into one collaborative desktop environment, enabling design for supply, parts reuse, and obsolescence management early on and throughout the product lifecycle. The new release enhances versioning and embeds advanced effectivity, and configuration management in VPM Navigator enhancements improve designer productivity.

Enovia SmarTeam V5R17—More flexibility to product structure management, significantly accelerating engineering processes across disciplines; enriched support for digital mock-up, 3-D XML, and security enhancements; latest CAD certifications support multi-CAD organizations.

Delmia V5R17—New family of products provides unified V5 access on the product, process, and resources stored in the Manufacturing Hub. This allows Delmia users to navigate and author manufacturing information in the context of the product definition and under lifecycle, effectivity, and configuration control. Process coverage is broadened through new CAA applications in the domains of robotic coatings, inspection, off-line and on-line programming, and integration with manufacturing execution systems.

— Renee Robbins , editorial director, Control Engineering